Expert System for Environmental Monitoring of Sanitary Landfills, 1997 Environmental Conference Proceedings

The application of expert systems technology in the domain of environmental management is particularly appropriate in order to preserve and disseminate efficiently valuable and scarce expertise at reasonable costs. The Landfill Environmental Monitoring Advisor (LEMA) is an expert system designed for use in the monitoring of environmental impacts of sanitary landfills. This paper describes the LEMA and the methodology and techniques that were employed for its development. A unique feature of this experience was that knowledge was acquired from multiple expertise sources in various forms. Expertise acquired from text analysis of textbooks and manuals was used in developing the core knowledge base for the basic prototype system; while those acquired from text analysis of research publications, interviews with selected domain experts and observations of landtilling works was used in the subsequent refinement and expansion of the basic prototype. The prototype building process for the LEMA adopted a modular approach using the incremental rapid prototyping methodology.